He's the MAN

London Fashion Week’s most promising debut

September 25, 2006—If New York’s best new menswear designers are sidestepping conventional sportswear in favor of tradition and formality, the exact opposite is happening in London. The city of Savile Row has flipped its wig for oddball activewear. That, at least, seemed like the mission statement of the MAN show—which showcased clothes by three up-and-coming designers, as well as those by host Topman—on the closing day of London’s spring 2007 collections. German designer Carola Euler said her starting point was the “completely ordinary”— white T-shirt, blue jeans, and black nylon raincoat—which she stretched or shriveled until it looked like Hyannisport hip-hop. Cassette Playa, the nom de mode of 26-year-old local heroine Carrie Mundane, layered synthetics in lurid greens and purples and overlaid them with computer graphics. And Scottish designer Deryck Walker shelved last season’s gingham and showed a shirt in clear vinyl with accordion-pleated white shorts and a waistcoat decorated with a Calder-like minimobile. Topman itself offered very full pleated trousers with Tyvek shirts, and a jersey shorts suit paired with a T-shirt printed with a trompe l’oeil tie.

But the brightest new star wasn’t at MAN. Like the sportswear scene’s éminence grise, Kim Jones, Aitor Throup has served time with Umbro. He’s currently showing a group of eight military-influenced sportswear pieces at the Library in London, each outfit representing a specific Hindu god, in memory of a young Indian boy beaten to death by racist football hooligans. As complex as that sounds, the clothes themselves (pictured) are enthralling exercises in craft and emotion—and their political content is the best evidence of a new cultural diversity in London fashion.